6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Northern lawyer John Reynolds travels to New Orleans to try and clean up the local crime syndicate based around a lottery. Although he meets Julie Mirbeau and they are attracted to each ...
Starring: John Wayne, Ona Munson, Ray Middleton, Henry Stephenson, Helen WestleyDrama | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.36:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In my home state we’re besieged with print and broadcast advertising that tells us “The Oregon Lottery does good things”. If you live in a state with its own lottery, chances are you’re inundated with much the same advertising, designed to accentuate the fact that lotteries do more than simply create instant millionaires. State lotteries like to play up the winners, of course, feeding the common dream of striking it rich by correctly choosing six or so numbers, but for anyone who’s ever played a lottery (this reviewer included), it soon becomes obvious just how difficult it is to even get a couple of numbers right. And that points up what is the real goal of these games of chance—to raise (usually much needed) funds for state programs. There’s a reason that the old adage goes “don’t bet against the house”, and in this particular case, the state is the house, and the state usually ends up winning long before any individual citizen does. Lotteries have become insanely popular over the past couple of decades, including the huge interstate pools like Powerball and Megamillions. But hidden in the bylaws of these gargantuan affairs are profit sharing deals where each of the participant states gets their own cut of the pie. In other words, the states aren’t offering these lotteries from purely altruistic motives. Lady from Louisiana takes us back to a seemingly more innocent time, a post-antebellum era when Southern Belles batted their lengthy eyelashes and stalwart males always did the right thing. Except for when they didn’t. In this case, corruption runs rampant in a New Orleans lottery, and ever trusty hero John Wayne is called in to clean up the shenanigans. In the process, he of course falls in love, but there’s also a rather unexpected late development that seems to both presage both a certain weather event in Back to the Future as well as a real life weather event called Hurricane Katrina.
Lady from Louisiana is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.36:1. Perhaps surprisingly given the vintage of this release, this is one of the nicest looking Republic catalog titles we've seen from Olive. The elements are in very good condition, with only the most minor of damage to report, most of it absolutely negligible. Contrast is very strong throughout the presentation, and the image is stable and clear, within the confines of the era of film. (Several of Munson's close-ups are filtered, giving them an intentionally softer look.) There is quite a bit of stock footage used, first in some establishing shots of New Orleans and, later, during the big storm sequence, and that looks noticeably more ragged than the bulk of this enterprise.
Much like the video quality, Lady from Louisiana's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track has surprisingly little damage, with none of the typical noticeable distortion in the opening credits' music. Dialogue and the film's many sound effects (especially in the big storm finale) are delivered with very good fidelity, with only expected hiss and a bit of high end clipping.
No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.
The comedy is broad and the melodrama fairly turgid at times in Lady from Louisiana, but the film is still rather unexpectedly charming and entertaining most of the time. It's yet another kind of odd role for Wayne (Republic seemed to really want Wayne to "grow up" to be an attorney considering how often they gave him roles like this), and it's also a rare chance to see Munson in a leading role. However, it's probably the supporting cast here that provides the most interest, with great little turns by the likes of Stephenson, Westley and Middleton. The quasi-disaster film finale is kind of giddily low rent (the miniature of the riverboat "rescuing" the stranded citizens has to be seen to be believed, and maybe not even then), and there's also a really peculiar lack of clear cut divisions between good and evil (especially with regard to Julie, who does some fairly underhanded things and then just kind of doesn't anymore). This Blu-ray offers rather nice looking video and sounding audio and comes Recommended.
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